My Family Faked Mom's Death to Stop My Wedding—My Adopted Sister Had My Fiancé's Baby novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Legally Dead

Nobody on the lawn moved except my mother.

She put the empty tray on the terrace wall and smoothed her dress.

Then she came down the steps toward me with her arms already open.

"Livia, baby. Let me look at you."

I stepped back.

Her arms stayed in the air.

"You buried an empty box," I said. "I sat by it for two days."

"I know. I know it was hard." Her eyes filled right away. "I've felt sick about it every hour."

"You've been drinking champagne and choosing a cake."

"Livia, that is unfair." Her voice dropped to the one she used on waiters. "Claire went into labor five weeks early. She was alone in a hospital here, scared and bleeding, with nobody. What was I supposed to do?"

"Tell me."

"You had Ethan. You had us. Claire had nobody." She touched my cheek, and I let her, because I wanted to see it. "You're strong. You always get over things."

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"Because it's true."

I took her hand off my face.

"Mom, Dad filed the paperwork."

She frowned. "What paperwork?"

"The death certificate. The funeral home sent it to the county before the Mass. The insurance company has your claim, and your accounts were closed when the bank got the notice."

The color left her face by degrees.

"Your passport was reported. The airline will hold it at the gate."

"That can be fixed," she said.

"Not today. Not tomorrow." I kept my voice level. "You're legally dead, Mom. You can't board a plane or use a card or buy a stamp, and you cannot go home until you walk into an office in a city that thinks you're a corpse and prove you're alive."

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